DOT Desk: [2] Bangladesh and South Korean private investors have selected four infrastructure projects worth over US$10 billion under PPP model, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday, reports The Financial Express.

[3] He said it while addressing a seminar titled “50 Years of Korea-Bangladesh Relations: Trends and Directions” held at Foreign Services Academy in the city. “We are hopeful that South Korean private investments in our infrastructure sector would further improve our economic landscape to tap the potentials beckoning us beyond 2026” the minister added.

[4] South Korea is one of the major trading partners of Bangladesh. The volume of our bilateral trade witnessed a record high in 2021 crossing $1.5 billion after almost 10 years of stagnation. “We appreciate the South Korean government for preferential market access to Bangladeshi products covering 95 per cent of tariff lines,” he said hoping that the South Korean government would continue to extend preferential market access to our products even after 2026 so that bilateral trade may continue to grow with a favourable balance of trade between our two friendly countries.

The Republic of Korea is the fifth-largest FDI source country for Bangladesh with an accumulated FDI stock of over US$1.3 billion.

Although the Korean companies started investing in Bangladesh in the early 1980’s, mainly in textile and apparel sectors, Korean investors have now started investing in diverse sectors, including leather and leather products, consumer electronics, mobile phones, home appliances, automobiles, ICT, infrastructure.

Presently, more than 150 Korean companies have significant presence in Bangladesh.